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Michael Foot

With the death of Michael Foot a whole era of British politics has closed. Conviction, erudition and sheer intellectual weight like his are now out of place in a Parliament of sound-bites where money talks and is listened to attentively. He was deeply committed to Plymouth – and particularly Plymouth Argyle: sadly though registered by the club as a player when 90 he was unable to turn out for them, and did not live to see his ambition realised of watching Argyle play top-flight football. Made editor of the Evening Standard in his 20s, he had a gift and appreciation for words throughout his long life: a scholar of Swift and biographer of H.G. Wells among others, whose learning was on a heroic scale, Michael Foot relished a far wider world than the Westminster village.

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To sentence a man of true genius, to the drudgery of a school is to put a racehorse on a treadmill - Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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On this day:
First Town Incorporated by English Parliament - 1439, Battle of Brentford - 1642, Battle of Preston - 1715, Elgar opens Abbey Road recording studios - 1931, First Photo of Nessie - 1933, Tirpitz Sunk - 1944, End of the Pound note - 1984, Tim Berners-Lee Proposes world wide web - 1990, Absolutely Fabulous Debuts - 1992, Gary Glitter Jailed - 1999
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